Broadcast Flag Specs

February 17, 2005 1:07 PM

Can someone please direct me to a technical specification of the US FCC-mandated Broadcast Flag?

I'm thinking that although new receivers will be unable to ignore the broadcast flag, it should be possible to build a digital "filter" that you hook up between the receiver and the datasource that flips the bit on the Broadcast Flag.

posted by Netzapper to Technology (3 answers total)

Take a look at the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG) final report. (All links are to PDFs.)

4.2 The specific “Broadcast Flag” to be used for this purpose is the Redistribution Control descriptor set forth in ATSC Standard A/65A: Program and System Information Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable, 31 May 2000, Amendment 3, 6 February 2002.

That standard is here, although now the amendment is incorporated in version 65B. You want Section 6.9.13 Redistribution Control (RC) Descriptor. I'm not certain they've yet specified what the actual values of the descriptor would be for protected content.

The FCC order on this is probably worth reading too, since it has a lot of discussion of the issues involved.
posted by smackfu at 1:35 PM on February 17, 2005

The EFF has some stuff worth reading. We have till July 1st to get HDTV tuner cards (I personally think July 4th would have been more fitting).
posted by 31d1 at 1:45 PM on February 17, 2005

For those that want an intro to the issues, there's this new review of it at Engadget.
posted by mathowie at 2:29 PM on February 17, 2005